Stand User

Really fascinating story on offer showing how salesman Ray Kroc met Mac and Dick McDonald who were running a burger operation in 1950s Southern California, he was impressed by their system they had in place and saw a potential franchise in the making. So he manouvered himself into a position to take the company from the brothers and create himself a million dollar empire. Michael Keaton delivers an entertaining performance with his character bordering that fine line between ambition and greed. I know some people were mad that Keaton's character wasn't potrayed in a more villanoius manner, but I think it's far more interesting giving him more balance as it allows you to think more about whether his actions and morals were right or wrong. It's not without it's flaws but I feel pretty well informed on subject matter I wasn't too familiar with, also I've had the urge to have a Hamburger for the first time in a few years, so I guess it's a success on that front!

Cursed Image

For all the acclaim heaped upon the iconic, expressionist interpretation of Dracula, I honestly found it a bit ponderous. There are some truly striking individual images, and it's plain to see the massive influence this film has had on pretty much every subsequent adaptation of the story, but I found it lacking in tension for much of the running time - it only really came (briefly) to life during the final 20 minutes. Perhaps a better score would have helped (I think the version I saw is not the preferred one), but I missed the aggressive strangeness of Dr. Caligari and the epic grandeur of Murnau's later Faust.

Mad Scientist

For all the acclaim heaped upon the iconic, expressionist interpretation of Dracula, I honestly found it a bit ponderous. There are some truly striking individual images, and it's plain to see the massive influence this film has had on pretty much every subsequent adaptation of the story, but I found it lacking in tension for much of the running time - it only really came (briefly) to life during the final 20 minutes. Perhaps a better score would have helped (I think the version I saw is not the preferred one), but I missed the aggressive strangeness of Dr. Caligari and the epic grandeur of Murnau's later Faust.

Captain Karen

For all the faults of the genre, I am an absolute unabashed fan of Zombie films, and Train to Busan may be one of the best I've seen. What it gets right that so many of its ilk gets wrong is that the characters are actually likable. I know this sounds like a pretty basic and simple thing to mess up, yet so many zombie movies just do not do, with most characters just ending up as fodder for the zombies to tear apart in spectacularly gory ways. Here, they actually set up the characters right, introducing the audience to them before the zombie stuff actually starts, as well as the character dynamics and relationships. The big comparison in my mind is to Zack Snyder's 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead, as both had a couple in, where the woman was pregnant. In Dawn of the Dead, the couple barely even seem like a couple, they have nothing in terms of chemistry, and when they die, it might of well have not mattered. In Train to Busan, we see the couple talking before the outbreak, we see them lightly teasing each other and being playful, and they just seem like a real, genuine couple. It's amazing what difference this makes, because it actually means the scenes where the characters are in danger have tension, unlike most Zombie movies where you kinda root for the zombies just to see the next death sequence. Honestly, if you like Zombie movies at all, this is certainly one to check out. Although it's got great characters and a really emotional core, that doesn't mean it lets up on the gore or anything like that, and provides all the usual carnage you'd expect, with some really great makeup and effects work to boot.

Captain Karen

So, I was browsing through reddit this afternoon, as I am want to do, and I stumbled across a post that sounded ludicrous. Someone had taken the entire five seasons of Breaking Bad, which clock in at around 41 hours, and edited it into a 2 hour 7 minute movie. Well, I just had to watch it. Honestly, whilst it isn't terrible it's about as kneecapped as you would expect it to be. You do get all the major beats of Walt's story, but the pacing is horrifically rushed. If you've seen the show, the fact that Gus shows up in less than half an hour should be setting off all kinds of red flags. In fact, the first four and a half seasons are blasted through in about an hour and a quarter. The last hour or so, which is entirely focussed on season 5B fairs a lot better, but is still fairly rushed. In order to fit all five seasons into such a short amount of time, anything non-essential is gone. No Badger, no Skinny Pete, no Tuco, no Crazy 8, no Hector, no Ted, no Lydia, no Jane, no Andrea and Brock. Todd, Mike Marie, and, to a lesser extent, Saul, are essentially cameos with the amount of screen time and significance they have. A ton of the most memorable and iconic scenes are also cut, including "I am the one who knocks", "Say my name", "No half measures", the train heist, Walter blowing up that building to get his money back, disposing of the bodies from Season 1, the boxcutter scene, anything with the Fly, Gus' death, Mike's death, etc. Hell, the cutting of Andrea and Brock actually makes the events of Season 5 make little sense. Since anything to do with the Ricin is removed, the catalyst for Jesse turning on Walt and teaming up with Hank just isn't there, as there's nothing Walt has really done to earn such disdain. Jesse in general is the one who gets shafted the most in this edit, as practically any scene where Walt isn't present is cut, essentially ridding him of any kind of arc or development.

So yeah, whilst I really admire the effort, the amount you have to remove just makes it nowhere near as good as the series is, and shouldn't be used as a substitute. You get the main gist of it, but what makes the series so great is lost in the process. I won't link to the movie here, since fan edit's are pretty dubious in terms of legality, but you can find it on Vimeo easily enough if you're curious.

Mad Scientist

Author: The JT LeRoy Story (2016)Recently broadcast on BBC Four's Storyville as The Great Literary Scandal: The JT LeRoy Story

Author is the incredibly interesting documentary telling the story of Laura Albert, who adapted the persona of incredibly disadvantaged youth Jeremy "Terminator" LeRoy to speak to a counsellor and upon being asked to repeat the persona. After a while Laura is asked to write by a councillor, leading her to write works of fiction as the persona, under the pretence of autobiography. JT leads a vastly different life to Laura, claiming to be the sexually abused transgender son of a truck stop prostitute, whilst she is several years older and a mother of one. The film mostly follows the the bizarre story of her after she transitions to writing outright works of fiction under his name. With this leading her family and friends to play this unique cast of characters backing JT up and even JT himself. Eventually, after being mentored by significant counter culture figures and becoming an overnight literary hit, she ends up mixing with, and occasionally confiding in, several notable celebrities, including Courtney Love and Bono.

Laura keeps extensive recordings of telephone calls and a lot of the documentary is devoted to playing back these recordings, with the cassettes in vision. This provides a fascinating inside view and combined with interview footage from her perspective helps us to see an outside view that you wouldn't normally have from just the media coverage. It's a long build up to the inevitable reveal, but for my money the film didn't devote enough time to that reveal.

Aside from a few cursory mentions, the film never dives into the effect of her lies. We never really hear of the potential impact of lies, or whether those that related to the book felt betrayed. Though the film is also quite limited in how it portrays the effect her writing had on the general public and those that related to it's themes of disadvantage and hardship.The film staunchly keeps things from her viewpoint, which helps us to sympathise with her, but prevents it from ever engaging in any kind of debate. This was particularly disappointing given the themes of the film are still hugely important. Should art be separated from the artist? Is all art created through a fictionalised persona? Does it matter if art is 'truthful', and can art ever be 'truthful'?

Ultimately, Author doesn't have the answers, and isn't really asking the questions. Definitely worth a watch, but maybe wait for it to appear streaming or see if it's repeated on Storyville at some point. 7/10.

Cursed Image

Not a film I had much interest in, until Mark Kermode pitched it as "the Lost World by way of Apocalypse Now". After that, they had me at 'hello'.

The much debated anti-imperialist subtext doesn't amount to much more than a few jibes at the US sticking its nose where it shouldn't, but the juxtaposition of WWII imagery with that of the Vietnam war definitely gives the film a interesting period flavour to pair with its quirky visual style. It doesn't make the most of its many plot devices, and the characterisation seems skewed towards John C. Reilly's character at the expense of everyone else, but it's an entertaining romp, during which I was certainly never bored.

Za Warudo

Watched My Brother the Devil earlier tonight. I'd watched about 15 minutes of it years ago but turned it off assuming it was just yet another stereotypical Bullet Boy esque 'road' uk gangster street drama. I was totally wrong though! Waaay better than I was expecting. A beautiful film.
The only thing I don't really get is the title.

Cursed Image

Denzel Washington is on fine form in what is an efficient, but grim revenge thriller that sadly lacks the kitsch spirit of the original '80s tv show. The improvised weaponry is amusing, but I think the attempt to sell Washington's character as a heroic do-gooder rather falls apart in the last act, where the film finally failed to keep me convinced that he wasn't equally as monstrous as the gangsters he dispatches.

Cursed Image

At no point did it do anything I wasn't expecting, but, taken on its own merits, it's a solid enough sci-fi actioner. It looks far better on the screen than the trailers would have you believe and the cast all do a fine job with what they're given. When it isn't lifting directly from Oshii's film though, it does feel like it has more in common with Robocop than its own source material, and the script is a real weak link - there's hardly a line in it that doesn't feel way too on the nose.

Symphogear

For all the acclaim heaped upon the iconic, expressionist interpretation of Dracula, I honestly found it a bit ponderous. There are some truly striking individual images, and it's plain to see the massive influence this film has had on pretty much every subsequent adaptation of the story, but I found it lacking in tension for much of the running time - it only really came (briefly) to life during the final 20 minutes. Perhaps a better score would have helped (I think the version I saw is not the preferred one), but I missed the aggressive strangeness of Dr. Caligari and the epic grandeur of Murnau's later Faust.

I had to study Nosferatu for my second year of Film Studies A level, and I agree the film does lack in places. I much preferred the other German expressionist film I analysed "Das cabinet Des Caligari". Some of the effects used the film are still pretty cool (the titular creature rising from his coffin on the boat for instance), and I found that the background behind the making of the film and its influences were probably more interesting than the film itself

Symphogear

Brian de Palma's Phantom of the Paradise 1974 (4.5/5)
This is a bizarre film, without spoiling anything it's a unique rock-opera-esque story that takes elements from Phantom of the Opera. Brian de Palma is easily one of the most versatile filmmakers and here it's no exception, despite being one of his earlier films he's capable of carrying the weirdness and it's very fun to watch, the cast are great as well (Paul Williams, William Finley and Jessica Harper).

Takashi Miike's Black Society Trilogy 1995/1997/1999
Shinjuku Triad Society (4/5) The best of the trilogy, this tells of the story of two brothers, one is a cop, the other is a lawyer involved with the triads. The film is drenched in sexual and bloody violence, and can make for an uncomfortable watch for some, but is thoroughly engaging and wonderfully shot by Miike.

Rainy Dog (3/5) This story tells of a man tasked with looking after his young son whilst being an assassin for hire. I found the film to be less enjoyable than Shinjuku mainly because I didn't find the characters very engaging, though it was nice to see a little more heart amongst the brutality of the narrative.

Ley lines (3.5/5) This story tells of story a trio of Japanese youths who escape their semi-rural upbringing and relocate to Tokyo where they befriend a troubled prostitute and end up getting involved with local crime syndicates. This story is built upon the relationship of the core characters and how they're treated differently due to their Chinese descent. It's a solid flick overall, though I didn't find some of the characters all that likeable.

Overall, Arrow Video did a great job with these films, and I enjoyed watching them, I hope to pick up the Dead or Alive Trilogy at some point soon

Stand User

The kind of movie that aims squarely for genre thrills and it definitely hits it's target. For the most part it is straight up shootout with quips and incompetent shooting a plenty. Dialogue is razor sharp, Sharlto Copley with his Afrikaans puns is in top form here and the rest of the cast also have there time to shine. The design of the setting really brings out the gunshots and other sound effects, it also has a strong score/soundtrack, not to mention some pretty interesting usage of John Denver's Annie's Song (listening to the song after watching this movie will never be the same). So overall this movie isn't breaking any new ground but it certainly delivers fun and exciting thrills. Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump continue to be ones to watch in terms of British Filmmakers.

Cursed Image

Effectively a spoof version of Spiderman derived from a 1990s WSJ property, this is fitfully amusing, but the central joke of a superhero who gains his power by wearing stolen underpants on his face like a mask ceases to be funny a good hour before the film ends.

Guild Member

This is the first of two live-action outings for Gantz, which I bought recently as a twin-pack DVD in HMV. (Recommendation courtesy of @bakum4tsu. Thanks again, man. )

So, at the halfway point, I'm really enjoying this. The way that the props from the original like the guns and particularly the suits have been brought to life is stunning. I love the way the small circular pockets on the suits light up when they're in use. The special effects are great, too, not just in terms of the designs for all the classic aliens, but also the "3D printing" effect when characters are transported in and out of "the room".

The mission to hunt the now-singular Tanaka/Suzuki alien was great! The way the original design was turned into an actual costume was spectacularly well done, I thought, and the decision to give it really comical movements was a stroke of genius. Even though there was only one of them in this version, I found it just as bloody terrifying as I did in the anime!

I wasn't sold on the characterisation, though. Main character Kurono, who was a brilliantly unique sort in the anime, seems to have been replaced with an off-the-shelf Unremarkable Guy type seemingly on loan from an anime harem comedy. He was a much more interesting protagonist when he was arrogant, pushy and amoral: you could easily see where his will to survive came from. Here he goes from being rather anonymous to being frankly smug once he's had a bit of a practice using the suit, and is suddenly imbued with the drive and ability to protect everyone. Eh? Where did that come from?

I haven't read the manga (at least, not yet), so I can't claim to be familiar with the character, but what's the deal here with Kojima? I know that this is perhaps especially rich coming from me, but this Kurono just doesn't make much of an impact. Yet she seems so very taken with him, even though he doesn't ever seem to notice her. Um, wouldn't it be more likely be the other way around? Another characterisation blunder, surely.

The film also makes the mistake of retaining Kato's backstory of having been looked out for by Kurono when they were kids, which was believable in the anime but not here.

And why is that guy with the glasses even here? What was his name again? Suzuki, wasn't it? He hasn't done anything yet! Where is he hiding during the missions?!

Kishimoto's death didn't really illicit that much of a response from me, I'm afraid. To this day, I remain haunted by her death scene in the anime; it's something I'll never be able to forget. It was just such so sickeningly tragic and horrific. Here, though, the best emotional moment was Kurono's reaction to Kato's demise. That was really well done.

Another thing that this film does well is communicate the characters' hesitance and uncertainty over pulling the trigger. I spent so much time watching the anime wanting to yell at the screen "Just pull the trigger, for god sake!" But in this you could feel the participants' fear of what these aliens actually are. The characters are overall comparatively more willing to actually pull the trigger this time around, though, and that's no doubt due partly to the factor of the unavoidably tighter running time, with missions timed at around 20 minutes as opposed to an hour apiece in the anime, leaving no need for time-filling.

Another thing I found actually superior to the animated version were the actual setups of some character deaths. The way Kurono and Kato actually end up being hit by the train happens in much more convincing fashion here, in my view. The same applies to Kishimoto; in the anime, she runs all the way around Kato and stands in front of him waiting to be hit, rather than just shoulder-barge him out of the way or something. In this film, she really does make a split-second decision to take the blow herself to save him.

All in all, I really enjoyed watching this, and would recommend it to anyone interested in seeing how anime or manga properties are realised in live-action. It gets extra points if you're already a fan of Gantz in some other form, as I am. Also, I'd like to give special mention to the fact that the video and audio quality on Manga's DVD release is excellent.

The thread title says to rate the film, so I'll go for a solid eight out of ten. I could end up watching this again pretty soon, and I'm looking forward to part two.

Pokémon Master

This is the first of two live-action outings for Gantz, which I bought recently as a twin-pack DVD in HMV. (Recommendation courtesy of @bakum4tsu. Thanks again, man. )

So, at the halfway point, I'm really enjoying this. The way that the props from the original like the guns and particularly the suits have been brought to life is stunning. I love the way the small circular pockets on the suits light up when they're in use. The special effects are great, too, not just in terms of the designs for all the classic aliens, but also the "3D printing" effect when characters are transported in and out of "the room".

The mission to hunt the now-singular Tanaka/Suzuki alien was great! The way the original design was turned into an actual costume was spectacularly well done, I thought, and the decision to give it really comical movements was a stroke of genius. Even though there was only one of them in this version, I found it just as bloody terrifying as I did in the anime!

I wasn't sold on the characterisation, though. Main character Kurono, who was a brilliantly unique sort in the anime, seems to have been replaced with an off-the-shelf Unremarkable Guy type seemingly on loan from an anime harem comedy. He was a much more interesting protagonist when he was arrogant, pushy and amoral: you could easily see where his will to survive came from. Here he goes from being rather anonymous to being frankly smug once he's had a bit of a practice using the suit, and is suddenly imbued with the drive and ability to protect everyone. Eh? Where did that come from?

I haven't read the manga (at least, not yet), so I can't claim to be familiar with the character, but what's the deal here with Kojima? I know that this is perhaps especially rich coming from me, but this Kurono just doesn't make much of an impact. Yet she seems so very taken with him, even though he doesn't ever seem to notice her. Um, wouldn't it be more likely be the other way around? Another characterisation blunder, surely.

The film also makes the mistake of retaining Kato's backstory of having been looked out for by Kurono when they were kids, which was believable in the anime but not here.

And why is that guy with the glasses even here? What was his name again? Suzuki, wasn't it? He hasn't done anything yet! Where is he hiding during the missions?!

Kishimoto's death didn't really illicit that much of a response from me, I'm afraid. To this day, I remain haunted by her death scene in the anime; it's something I'll never be able to forget. It was just such so sickeningly tragic and horrific. Here, though, the best emotional moment was Kurono's reaction to Kato's demise. That was really well done.

Another thing that this film does well is communicate the characters' hesitance and uncertainty over pulling the trigger. I spent so much time watching the anime wanting to yell at the screen "Just pull the trigger, for god sake!" But in this you could feel the participants' fear of what these aliens actually are. The characters are overall comparatively more willing to actually pull the trigger this time around, though, and that's no doubt due partly to the factor of the unavoidably tighter running time, with missions timed at around 20 minutes as opposed to an hour apiece in the anime, leaving no need for time-filling.

Another thing I found actually superior to the animated version were the actual setups of some character deaths. The way Kurono and Kato actually end up being hit by the train happens in much more convincing fashion here, in my view. The same applies to Kishimoto; in the anime, she runs all the way around Kato and stands in front of him waiting to be hit, rather than just shoulder-barge him out of the way or something. In this film, she really does make a split-second decision to take the blow herself to save him.

All in all, I really enjoyed watching this, and would recommend it to anyone interested in seeing how anime or manga properties are realised in live-action. It gets extra points if you're already a fan of Gantz in some other form, as I am. Also, I'd like to give special mention to the fact that the video and audio quality on Manga's DVD release is excellent.

The thread title says to rate the film, so I'll go for a solid eight out of ten. I could end up watching this again pretty soon, and I'm looking forward to part two.

Glad you did enjoy it. Now watch the GCI Gantz-O. I'm pretty sure you will like it though you havent read the manga so might be spoilers in case you wanna read it. Still... try to watch it, it was pretty cool and well done in my opinion.

Cursed Image

A few years back, I was keen to see this low-budget zombie effort due to the connection with Sam Raimi (he invested heavily in the film out of his own pocket), but having subsequently seen clips, I wasn't holding out much hope.

Its amusingly jokey opening makes it a little better than the 90-minutes of regret I was expecting, as it follows a government-sponsored anti-zombie team searching for a missing scientist in rural Ohio, but the film is weighed down by a terrible script, a tedious middle section, amateurish acting, poor camera work (even the restored print is badly focused and often shakey) and, unsurprisingly, it seems to borrow all its best plays from Romero's Living Dead series. The gruesome practical effects are quite good, if that's your thing, and there is something charmingly honest about its sheer ineptitude, but you'd never mistake it for a good film.